Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Listening to the House Redistricting Committee meeting yesterday, a couple of things got my attention.

First off, while they voted to approve the latest iteration of the “Grouse” map.. it’s actually still not done, because they’re noted they are  going to meet again on Friday. (which isn’t on the calendar). They noted that it’s their intent to meet, and carve up at least two legislative districts into single member districts, 26 and 28, as they are that way now.

So, technically the map is mostly approved. Mostly.

Secondly, and more notably, the House Committee discussed that it might be a good thing to put together an informational column to explain how they reached some of their decisions on redistricting.

This revelation that they want to explain what they’re doing is coming months after their counterparts in the Senate were proposing and releasing maps all throughout the process, and lamenting that the House was holding their maps alternately secret, or incomplete, and many House members had no idea what the redistricting committee was doing. I haven’t spoken with any rank & file House members this week about the topic, so I’m not sure that they know yet.

And while they are thinking about what to write in their first disclosure about their process & deliberations, Senate Redistricting chair Mary Duvall fired off a third or fourth column from the Senate Committee about where they ended up on the Senate side.

We’ll watch and see what’s out there when the House finishes up their tweaks of the map, and when they finally get around to disclosing what they are proposing and why.

There’s a quote attributed to Otto von Bismarck that notes “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”  I would say that along those lines, when I compare how the House went about the redistricting process versus how the Senate went about it, I have a better feeling about knowing what went into the Senate’s version.

From the Argus Leader, at GOP senator’s recent retreat last week, they at least discussed whether it might be best to bring legislation or to roll the dice at the ballot box:

Senate Republicans this month, during a two-day legislative retreat in Sioux Falls, spent time discussing the potential for the Legislature to pre-empt a pair of proposed ballot measures seeking to expand Medicaid with legislation of their own.

“How has our reluctance to act worked in the past?” said Sen. Wayne Steinhauer, posing the question to his colleagues while pointing to cannabis and minimum wage policies.

And,,

Schoenbeck said Friday that given the amount of money on the table through Medicaid expansion, and the ever-changing political climate, it makes sense for lawmakers to consider their options.

“The question is ‘is more federal welfare good for South Dakota?’,” he told the Argus Leader.

Read it all here.

That might be a challenging issue to get the rank and file of the GOP to accept, much less the House of Representatives. And the Governor.

We’ll see. Never say never in politics.

He was complaining on facebook last night that the Senate redistricters were drawing a plan he didn’t like, and now he’s in the Argus Leader complaining about the map that the State Senate has designed might cause him to have an election.

State Representative Tom Pischke just doesn’t seem to be starting this week on a positive note:

“I do feel the Senate map is targeting me and other conservatives,” said Rep. Tom Pischke, the District 25 Republican from Dell Rapids who’s among several House members to speak out against the “Blackbird” proposal, the formal name for the redistricting map being carried by Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-Madison, and endorsed by Senate members on the redistricting committee.

and..

And some House members wonder if that’s all a recipe to rid the Legislature of a few social conservatives while protecting moderates.

and..

The source of the controversy around the Blackbird proposal, he (Schoenbeck) said, stems from how “gerrymandered” the current legislative districts are. Fixing that with a new map will compact districts, and more straight lines will unavoidably cause some heartburn among incumbents.

“Nobody owns a district,” Schoenbeck said. “The process is way more important than any one of us.”

Read it all here.

Tom should turn that frown upside down.

Voters don’t like a grumpy candidate, and he might have to be hitting some doors before this is all over.

The Senate and House Redistricting Committees are both moving forward tomorrow with updated maps which they’ll vote on. The updated “Blackbird 2.0” map is the most likely to move forward in the Senate, with the updated “Eagle 2.1″ map proposed by Troy Heinert most likely to go by the wayside.  In case you’re wondering what Blackbird currently looks like, I’ve taken screenshots for your review below:

The House Redistricting Committee will likely move their (ironically named) map “Grouse 2.0” forward.

At least one House member is expressing his confidence in the House map over that of the Senate, blaring a message of my map is better than your map, as State Representative Tom Pischke is on Facebook tonight claiming that the Senate’s map will be found unconstitutional:

This would be the same House member that thought last election Liz May would be a truer Republican than Dusty Johnson, so I’ll reserve judgement on his legal acumen until a later date.  Although, I am glad he’s scrounged up some concern over what South Dakota’s Native American population would like to see.

We’ll see which of the maps is able to go the distance. Stay Tuned.

From the Rapid City Journal, on a weekend where Taffy Howard is spending time worrying about election fraud conspiracies and whether Liz Cheney was punished by House Leadership, Dusty Johnson just added another accomplishment to his political resume:

Today, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee unanimously passed the bipartisan Cattle Contract Library Act of 2021 (H.R. 5609). The bill was introduced by Ranking Member of the Livestock & Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee Dusty Johnson (R-S.D) and is the result of nearly a year of work with producers and industry leaders following the release of the July 2020 Boxed Beef & Fed Cattle Price Spread Investigation Report. The investigation recommended the creation of a cattle contract library.

Read the entire article here.

Senator John Thune has an interview in a wide ranging article with Forum News Service today. What does the article note? First and foremost that Senator Thune is concerned for the direction our country is going, and the hopelessness that some people feel. But, John also believes that he’s here to appeal to people’s hopes.

He says he has waited until January to announce earlier. He wants to avoid a divisive campaign season. And there is also that “political environment”.

“There is a disenfranchisement and antipathy towards ‘establishmentʼ that is pervasive,” Thune said.

And..

At 60, he is far from ending a career that could span decades yet. Even if voters at home are “hotter” than in previous years, he still sees himself as a useful conduit for his perspective on DC. “I am someone who has always believed that politics should be about appealing to peopleʼs hope, not taking advantage of their fears,” Thune said. “Itʼs kind of my job to listen to them.”

Read the entire article here.

And that’s a good lesson for those who want to represent voters in Pierre and in Washington. To work for our hopes, and not our fears.

A very good lesson.

KEVN gave State Representative Taffy Howard the opportunity to state her case on why she should be elected over incumbent Congressman Dusty Johnson. And maybe it’s just me, but she has some work to do:

”The reality is, no one political party has all the right answers every time, no elected official has all the right answers all the time,” Johnson said. “But I’m going to go to work for South Dakotans every day, serve the constitution, and serve our country. That’s what South Dakotan’s expect.”

Howard argues that Johnson doesn’t represent many of the values of everyday South Dakotans.

One example she cites is his position on supposed “election integrity” in the 2020 race and his vote to let Representative Liz Cheney keep her leadership role after she criticized former President Donald Trump.

Read it here.

Um.. the basis for Taffy thinking she should be chosen over Dusty is because she follows the pillow guy’s views on election conspiracies, and because Dusty didn’t punish Liz Cheney?

If you had a poll of the top 10 issues South Dakota Republican voters cared about, election integrity conspiracies don’t make the list unless someone prompts for it.  And not voting to strip Liz Cheney of a leadership role? How does that affect South Dakotans. It doesn’t.

Don’t even look for that in the top 50.  Literally, no one cares.

Taffy is a nice lady, but now that she’s done exploring the race and actually running, it looks like this is going nowhere fast.

The biggest homecoming parade in the state is always a good bet to draw our state’s leaders, and yesterday was no different:

Defending Rural America
By Sen. John Thune

Democrats in Washington have forgotten about the folks who are putting food on their dinner tables every night. Our farmers and ranchers feed the world, and instead of strengthening the agricultural economy, Democrats are proposing a multi-trillion dollar spending bill that prioritizes coastal elites ahead of rural Americans. And I am deeply concerned by what this tax-and-spending spree will mean for South Dakota producers.

Agriculture is the lifeblood for many South Dakotans. As a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, standing up for rural America is a top priority for me, which is why I have been sounding the alarm on how detrimental the Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spending spree would be for South Dakota farms and ranches. Their policies are so draconian that I’m worried the Democrats’ bill could mean the end of some family farms thanks in part to the bill’s expansion of the death tax. I’ve long opposed the death tax, primarily because I don’t think death should be a taxable event. I also believe there should be limits on how many times the government can tax the same money.

Farming and ranching operations are often cash-poor. For many farmers and ranchers, their money is often tied up in their land – not the bank. A farmer could have land that is worth a lot of money on paper, but he could still struggle to break even or make ends meet, especially in years with low commodity prices or poor yields. What’s worse is that if the same farmer were to die, the ability to pass his operation to the next generation could be hindered by an expanded death tax. If the IRS demands a substantial portion of his estate and most of his money is tied up in the land, there’s a good chance that the family will not have enough money in the bank to pay the IRS. As a result, they’ll have to start selling off land – the literal foundation of their farming operation. Without the farmland, there’s no farm.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but the government should not be in the business of shuttering family farms and family businesses. With the Democrats’ tax-and-spending spree, a lot of farmers are going to have to start worrying about whether or not they’ll be able to hand their farm on to their children or grandchildren – or whether a government tax bill will mean the end of a multi-generational family enterprise. The icing on the cake is that at the same time Democrats are planning to expand a tax that threatens family farms, they’re also planning to cut taxes for millionaires in blue states. If that’s not an example of misplaced priorities, I’m not sure what is.

I have heard from many farmers and ranchers who are worried that the Democrats’ proposed tax policies may threaten their livelihood. It’s clear that Democrats’ tax-and-spending spree is a bad deal for rural Americans – and for working families around the country. I will continue to do everything I can to protect Americans from the dangers of Democrats’ socialist fantasies, including their plan to target our nation’s agriculture producers.

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